The Army's lead investigator in the Maj. Matthew Golsteyn murder case has pleaded guilty to charges related to wearing medals that he had not been awarded, said Fort Bragg spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Burns.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Delacruz was reduced in rank to specialist after pleading guilty at a special court-martial on Monday to making false official statements and wearing unauthorized insignia, decorations, badges, and ribbons, Burns told Task & Purpose.

Delacruz had been charged for falsely submitting a Purple Heart to his official military file and wearing the decoration along with the Pathfinder Badge and Air Assault Badge, none of which he had been officially awarded, Burns said. The former sergeant first class also certified his official military board file for promotion.

Burns declined to say whether Delacruz will be discharged or how his sentence could affect the prosecution's case against Golsteyn, who is charged with murder after repeatedly admitting that he killed an unarmed suspected Taliban bomb-maker.

Delacruz was suspended from all investigative duties when the allegations against him first emerged late last year, said Army Criminal Investigation Command spokesman Christopher Grey.

"He is now in the final stages of being eliminated from the CID program," said Grey, who also declined to comment on how Delacruz's conviction could affect the government's case against Golsteyn.

Task & Purpose was unable to reach Delacruz's attorney on Tuesday.

Golsteyn's civilian attorney Phillip Stackhouse has vowed to argue that Delacruz improperly "planted the seed" of incriminating information in the minds of prosecution witnesses if the case goes to trial.

"Why would that shock anyone that I would want to get out that he's a dirty agent and he had already tainted these witnesses that are being called?" Stackhouse told Task & Purpose on Tuesday.

No trial date has been set.

The Golsteyn case has been rife with twists since February 2010, when Golsteyn allegedly killed an unarmed man in Afghanistan whom a tribal elder had identified as a Taliban bomb-maker who had killed two Marines. He first buried the man's body, but then later he and two other soldiers dug up the corpse and burned it, according to the Washington Post.

Golsteyn first acknowledged while taking a polygraph for a CIA job that he had killed the man, but Army investigators initially did not find enough evidence to charge him. That changed after Golsteyn admitted during an October 2016 interview with Fox News' Bret Baier that he had killed the suspected bomb-maker.

In this May 28, 2019 file photo, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader, second left, arrives with other members of the Taliban delegation for talks in Moscow, Russia. (Associated Press/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

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The move, days after President Donald Trump canceled a planned meeting with Taliban leaders at his Camp David retreat, came as the movement looks to bolster regional support, with visits also planned for China, Iran and Central Asian states.

Per his final demands, Joe Heller was laid in his casket Thursday in a T-shirt featuring the Disney dwarf Grumpy and the middle finger of his right hand extended. He also told his daughters to make sure and place a remote control fart machine in the coffin with him.

Laced with bawdy humor, the irreverent but loving obit captured Heller's highly inappropriate nature and his golden heart, friends who filled the fire station for a celebration of his life on Thursday evening said.

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William Patrick Williams faces federal charges for reportedly lying on an application to buy the semiautomatic rifle he planned to use in a shooting, according to a federal indictment filed Aug. 14.

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A photograph circulated by the U.S. State Department's Twitter account to announce a $1 million USD reward for al Qaeda key leader Hamza bin Laden, son of Osama bin Laden, is seen March 1, 2019. (State Department via Reuters)

Reuters) - Hamza bin Laden, a son of slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and himself a notable figure in the militant group, was killed in a U.S. counter-terrorism operation, the White House said on Saturday.